Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1887-08-09
PnrrrrR,s INK.-The growth Of

HAN4Eh = IN NJ = ~ 80 - - -
Wichita, Kansas. is one Of the Won
derful things OF this wonderful age.
Two or three years ago It was an
insignificant little town pitched ont |
on a Kansas prairie. Very few peo-
pie ever heard the name, and fewer
still could tell whether it belonged
to an Indian, was the title of vii.
lage, or the designation of some
unimportant stream. All at once
we began to hear of Wichita. A
boom had struck the place, and
there was first an inquiry as to its
location and then a rush for the
burg. In a little while newspapers
and people were talking of Wichita
as city, and to-day it is one of the
leading cities of the great State,
and reaching out for the chieftain-
ship. ali this remarkable trans
formation has taken place within
three years, aud most of it within
two. The story of how it was
brought about is interesting and
instructive. 1t is told by citizen
of the place, business man who
took part in the work of booming
the town. He says:
We organized. We held almost night
| ly meetings, and among the first things
we agreed upon was to hang toeether and
stay by each other through thick and
thin.
We advertised by hundreds of thous-
ands of circulars. We set forth all our
advantages in such manner that strang-
ers who were led by our circulars to give
us call were not deceived but, on the
contrary, agreed that We had not put 1t
as strong as VIC might.
Every town in the east of nptOriety was
| not only served with our circulars, but
our newspapers And the newspaper
advertising did double duty. Our people
made il rule TO ask all their friends to
| advertise
We then subscribed for a large number
| of copies, loaded with local advertising
and great advantages, and we found by
conversiug with parties who finally came
here prospecting, that the full sdvertis-
! ing columns of our papers which they
| had seen did more than all else 10 impress
them with the growth and importance of
| the place.
we found then we could not overdo
| this thing-that the more we paid out
for these purposes the more were our
profits Every new conner was custo-
mer to most of our stores, and while their
advertising paid to them rich returns, it
served the double purpose to impress the
eastern man who had an Eye to business
with the the fact that Wichita was ris-
lug town, and thus we have gone on un.
til we have added population since Icame
here over 10000, and property has in
creased in business places more than a
thousa d fold, and in the country round
about us the appreciation has been over
400 per cent.
/ know as well as you can know that
printers ink is the best capital to boom a
town. Had we not used IL unsparingly
/ Wichita would not have been larger than
{ arthage. AS It is, we will soon outrank
any town in the State.
One of these days Annapolis will
undertake something of this kind.
We are going to "boom," aud our
people might as well get ready for
the business, and learn how to do
their part. As starter We must
cease our local quarrels and become
united in our purposes. That much
accomplished, the rest will be COM
paratively easy, for if our people
begin to pull together they can ac-
complish more than any other peo-
pic on earth. The intelligence, the
energy, the spirit of enterprise are
all here. They are now lacking in
direction aud unity of purpose, but
these will come one of these days.
and then profting by the experience
of Wichita and other doomed towns
of the West, we will forge ahead
aud present to the world an example
of what can be done by printers
ink aud the wisdom to use it prop
erly.